Re: [LINUX5250] A much better PDF generator than yesterday

[Scott Klement <klemscot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 6 Mar 2002, James Rich wrote:
>
> Scott, can you try this new version and tell me if you still have spacing
> problems?

Yep...  same problem.   If you like I can have lp5250d output the SCS
straight to a file  (outputcommand = cat - > /some/file.scs) and then
E-mail you that SCS file so you can try doing "cat file.scs | scs2pdf"

>
> I also updated the Makefile.am so everything works with autoconf.  Just
> ./configure, make, make install and you are all set.

Actually, you'd have to do an ./autogen.sh first.   (the autogen.sh will
create Makefile.in from Makefile.am.   Then configure creates Makefile
from Makefile.in)

Also, just so other people know, since there's one in every directory,
it's the Makefile.am in the src/ directory that you need to patch.

>
> Here is what remains to be done:
>
> 1. Handle page size.  We could either just use a small font all the time
> (obviously not a very good idea) or we need to figure out how to change
> fonts.  Even if we make the PDF use landscape, which I don't know how to
> do yet, we will still have to handle really wide output, like 198 columns.

Landscape would be less-than-ideal for on-screen reading, IMHO.

>
> 2. Handle different fonts.  We don't need to use 10-point Courier for
> everything if we don't want to.  This isn't so important as #1.

Agreed.

> 3. Handle margin size.  It is now hard-coded to 1/2 inch top and left
> margin.  This ought to be changeable.

Agreed.

> 4. Handle page breaks.  Right now it just breaks after so many lines have
> been printed.  I don't know the SCS print stream too well so I don't know
> what to check for regarding page breaks.  Maybe the SCS_FF macro is the
> page break?  From Mike's code it appears so.  If someone can confirm this
> I can make it so.

Here's some info from IBM that you might find useful:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/QB3AUJ03/APPENDIX1.5?DT=19990301100126

I wish I knew of some more detail about SCS...  but maybe someone on the
list does?